Now, the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) has confirmed that the burst of wild weather was the result of 16 cloud seeding missions that were carried out over four days.

“The cloud seeding missions were carried out from Friday December 15 to Monday December 18, when convective clouds formed over the mountain region, which led to successful results,” a forecaster told Gulf News.

What is cloud seeding? It’s a process where special planes fitted with flares inject clouds with magnesium, sodium chloride and potassium chloride so they produce rain.

The process doesn’t create the clouds, however – they need to exist in the first place. The areas in the UAE with the greatest chance of clouds (and therefore cloud seeding success) are located close to the mountains and the Oman Sea.

The NCM says its cloud seeding missions have contributed to an increase of 20 per cent in rainfall across the UAE, Gulf News reported.